Not bad enough to be born with a congenital heart defect, then to have pneumonia, Giardia and parasites apparently now I also have something called hip dysplasia.

About 8 weeks ago Mummy noticed I was walking funny, a bit wonky actually. I also started slipping over especially when I was running and playing. We went straight to the vets, they thought it would be best to x ray me at the same time as I would be neutered.

Back then I had not been cleared by the cardiologist man to have an anaesthetic, my heart device needed 6 months after the PDA surgery to fully embed before they could clear me.

Eventually I saw the nice specialist heart man called Antonio, he gave us good news about my heart device and everything looked good.

Bad news

So then last week I had my x rays while I was under anaesthetic, it was not good news at all. The lovely vet lady Clare who also rubs my tummy wanted to send my x rays to the specialist. A few days later she rang with shocking news, my hips were bad, much worse than any of us thought.

My left side is worse than my right but both sides are affected and I have been diagnosed with hip dysplasia.

Total hip replacement surgery

It is very likely that one day I will need total hip replacement surgery. That does not sound good at all. The specialist said if I cannot tolerate an hour of exercise then that will be the point when it is needed.

I will have osteoarthritis in my hip joints at some point soon, I am only 11 months old currently so I do not have it yet.

I will need pain relief, hydrotherapy, exercise restrictions and no more chasing my tennis balls.

Please, please, please learn from my terrible bad luck

To lead a near normal life I will need very extensive surgery that will be extremely demanding of me and my hooman parents emotionally. My vet bill total will be tens of thousands of pounds.

This is another massive health problem that I have, it isn’t actually bad luck, it is all because of bad breeding.

Do your research if you are buying a puppy. Make sure the parents and grand parents health test certificates are available to see- if not walk away.

Causes of hip dysplasia:

Obesity during puppyhood- nope not me.

Genetic- most likely as I was a puppy farmed dog. My parents would not have had any heath tests.